Mount Brandon
The village of Cloghane had only just about recovered from the B.O.A.C. loss of another Sunderland on the 28th of July, 1943, when tragedy called again 25 days later. Another aircraft came to grief in exactly the same spot and once again with a major loss of life on the 22nd of August, 1943. A Royal Air Force Sunderland Flying Boat, DD848, of 201 Squadron, Coastal Command, out of Castle Archdale on Lower Loch Erne, County Fermanagh with a crew of eleven, was intent on hunting U-Boats in The Bay of Biscay but found the inner slopes of Mt. Brandon instead. Again, as on 25 days earlier this area was a scene of carnage with only three survivors. In accordance with the wishes of the next of kin six bodies were returned to Northern Ireland for burial while Group Captains William Stannard and Stanley Pullinger were buried with full military honours in the Protestant section of Killiney cemetery near Castlegregory, County Kerry, where their graves are lovingly tendered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).
Gerard O' Regan
Ger. O'Regan
